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Ad
Cross-promotion for Apple platform apps
Your app shows ads for other indie apps, and every two shown earn one appearance for yours, without tracking people or devices.
How it works
Views are the currency
Showing a Kickstart Exchange ad in your app earns your account one point, and an appearance of your app in someone else’s costs two.
The standard starting balance is 200 points for free, so you immediately start benefiting as soon as your app goes live.
Quality
What shows up in your app
Built from real listings
Cards use the app’s current App Store listing: icon, name, subtitle, and developer name, linked straight to its store page.
Verified and reviewed
Every developer proves control of each app through its listed website or App Store promotional text, and a human approves every app before it serves.
Matched to your app
Your app only ever shows apps with a content rating at or below its own, and only ones built for the device they would appear on.
Reportable by anyone
Users can report any ad from the card itself, with no account needed, and a human reads every report.
Your controls
You decide what gets shown
Category matching
Choose which app categories can have adverts shown in your app, and also where your app should appear.
Excluded terms
List up to 20 words or phrases. Apps matching any of them in their name or subtitle never appear in your app.
Daily analytics
Ads shown, impressions, clicks, and click-through rate for each app every day, including which apps yours appeared in.
Four steps
From joining to serving
-
1
Sign up for free
Create your Kickstart Exchange account. It's completely free.
-
2
Add your app
Register your apps on your account. A human manually reviews every app.
-
3
Add our SDK
Place
ExchangeBannerAdViewwherever it suits your layout, using your API key. -
4
Show two, earn one
Every two ads your app shows earn one ad for your app in someone else’s.
Privacy
We match apps, not people
Exchange records advert activity for participating apps, not for individual users or devices.
- The SDK does not identify or track individual users or devices.
- Platform and App Store storefront country are used for compatibility and app-level accounting.
- Statistics are counted per app, never per person.
- Ad artwork comes from Kickstart Exchange, delivered by Cloudflare – there are no ad network or tracker requests.
- The SDK is open source, so you can check every claim yourself.
ContentView.swift
import KickstartExchange
import SwiftUI
struct ContentView: View {
var body: some View {
ExchangeBannerAdView(apiKey: "ks_live_…")
}
}The SDK
One view, no dependencies
The Kickstart SDK package supports iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, tvOS 18, visionOS 2, and watchOS 11 or later. It is MIT licensed and depends on nothing. The card handles the App Store link, ad information, and reporting by itself.
Use it only in a main app binary – Apple's App Review guidelines prohibit you from including it in app extensions, App Clips, widgets, notifications, or similar.
If paying customers shouldn’t see ads, wrap the view in the entitlement check you already have.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Kickstart Exchange is completely free to use: apps earn views by showing ads, and that balance is the only currency.
When does my app start appearing?
Once your app is approved and showing ads, it banks a point for each one, and two points buy one view elsewhere. The standard 200-point starting balance gives you 100 free views from the moment your app goes live.
Does an app need to show adverts to be advertised?
No. Points belong to your Exchange account rather than individual apps. You decide separately for each app whether it shows adverts and whether it is advertised, so one app can earn points while another spends them.
Can a competitor appear in my app?
You can rule that out with excluded terms. Add up to 20 words or phrases in your dashboard, and any app matching one in its name or subtitle is filtered from your slots.
Which apps can join?
Kickstart Exchange is open to apps on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS. Apps marked Made for Kids are not accepted, and nothing rated above your app will ever show inside it.
Although we welcome most apps, we reserve the right to reject apps that appear unfinished, misleading, or otherwise fall below the standard of quality we want for the exchange. We may also limit apps from categories that are already well represented, work in very specific geographies (such as only one city), or reject submissions that are otherwise not a good fit.
Does Kickstart Exchange support accessibility?
Yes! Exchange ads have excellent support for VoiceOver, Switch Control, Dynamic Type, and other system accessibility features. They use standard SwiftUI controls with clear accessibility labels and hints.
How do you check I own an app?
The first time you add an app from an App Store developer ID, we give you a short verification code, such as KX-7F4Q2M. Prove it's yours either by publishing that code at /.well-known/kickstart-exchange.txt on the website listed on your App Store page, or by pasting it into your app's promotional text in App Store Connect, which needs no app update. The code only needs to be visible briefly; once the developer ID is verified, you can and should remove it. Later apps from the same developer ID and Exchange account skip this step but still need human approval.
How many apps can I list?
Kickstart Exchange welcomes all app developers, but please be respectful – flooding the site with a dozen or more apps will probably result in some apps being rejected. Submit the apps that matter most to you, and you'll do fine.
What are house ads?
Kickstart Exchange lets you run adverts for your own apps, known as house ads. You can set a percentage, for example saying that half the adverts should be for your own stuff, with the other half being open to the exchange. House ads cost nothing to run, but earn nothing too.
Can users pay to remove ads in my app?
You get to decide when adverts are shown, so adding a "Remove adverts" in-app purchase is easy to do – and also a great idea!
Can I rotate Kickstart Exchange adverts with other ad networks?
No. Once a Kickstart Exchange advert appears, it must remain in place for as long as that advert placement is visible. Automatically hiding or replacing it creates unfair views and violates our terms.
Can I buy more reach for my app?
No, sorry. Several developers have asked, and we haven't ruled it out, but our priority is helping indie developers find new users without spending money, and we don't want big spenders crowding out everyone else. If we ever do add such a feature, any paid views will be capped to a small slice of the network, so the exchange carries on with its core purpose unchanged: helping indie developers grow.
What does the SDK require?
SwiftUI, plus iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, tvOS 18, visionOS 2, or watchOS 11 and later. It has no dependencies, builds with Xcode 26, and is MIT licensed. Use it only in a main app binary – Apple's App Review guidelines prohibit you from including it in app extensions, App Clips, widgets, notifications, or similar.
What does the SDK collect?
The SDK sends app-level integration details and the App Store storefront country. Exchange records impressions and clicks for participating apps, never for individual users or devices. See the privacy notice for details.
What does an advert show?
Our adverts show data drawn directly from App Store Connect, so you can be certain it has been through App Review. Specifically, we show the app's icon, title, and subtitle, and tapping the advert opens directly in the App Store. The developer's name is shown on the advert's information screen.
Beyond that, we also:
- Clearly label each advert as Sponsored App.
- Explain why you are seeing the advert.
- Let users report adverts that are inappropriate, misleading, or otherwise violate our policies.
Can I customize the ad?
Kickstart Exchange ads have a specific design in order to meet App Review and legal requirements. They support light mode and dark mode out of the box, plus a handful of preset design customizations, but otherwise should not be customized.
What happens when an ad is reported?
The native report screen offers fixed reasons and asks for no contact details. Once a report is sent, the advert is removed from the app for the rest of that run. A human reviews each report and can suspend or remove any app from the pool.
How do you prevent abuse?
All apps must already be approved through Apple's App Review process, and we also manually review every developer who is joining. Beyond that, we have a number of heuristics in place to stop people abusing the exchange – we want to make sure it's a safe and trusted environment for everyone.
Developers found to be violating our policies will be removed from the program and have any outstanding points removed.
Does Kickstart Exchange require the Kickstart app?
No. Kickstart Exchange is free for every indie developer, whether or not you use Kickstart.
That said, Kickstart Exchange gets your app seen, and Kickstart helps with everything else: it's a Mac app that walks you through marketing your app step by step, from App Store page to launch and beyond. If you want more people to find your work, Kickstart is the perfect companion to Exchange.
Put your app in front of people who already love indie apps
Kickstart Exchange is free to use and takes minutes to deploy.